1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to constructing DNA sequences and more particularly to constructing DNA sequences using ligase enzymes.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,903 issued Apr. 23, 2002 to Francesco Cerrina et al. for a method and apparatus for synthesis of arrays of DNA probes provides the following background information, “The sequencing of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a fundamental tool of modern biology and is conventionally carried out in various ways, commonly by processes which separate DNA segments by electrophoresis. . . . One such alternative approach, utilizing an array of oligonucleotide probes synthesized by photolithographic techniques is described in Pease, et al., “Light-Generated Oligonucleotide Arrays for Rapid DNA Sequence Analysis,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 91, pp. 5022–5026, May 1994.”
International Patent Application WO 02/095073 by Peter J. Belshaw et al. published Nov. 28, 2002 for a method for the synthesis of DNA sequences provides the following background information, “Using the techniques of recombinant DNA chemistry, it is now common for DNA sequences to be replicated and amplified from nature and for those sequences to then be disassembled into component parts which are then recombined or reassembled into new DNA sequences. While it is now both possible and common for short DNA sequences, referred to as oligonucleotides, to be directly synthesized from individual nucleosides, it has been thought to be generally impractical to directly construct large segments or assemblies of DNA sequences larger than about 400 base pairs. As a consequence, larger segments of DNA are generally constructed from component parts and segments which can be purchased, cloned or synthesized individually and then assembled into the DNA molecule desired.”